Sometimes I like to joke that the profession of volunteer management is like juggling or the old Vaudeville act of plate spinning. You’ve seen plate spinning, right? If you are not familiar with this stage act just Google the term and you can see all kinds of performances of people keeping a number of dinner plates balanced and spinning on top of wooden dowel rods that are about two feet long. The spinning plates stay on top of the dowels by centrifugal force, like a gyroscope. In elaborate performances a plate spinner can have 10, 15, or 20 plates all spinning at once. The distinguishing feature of plate spinning is that, as the plates slow down in their spin and become more and more unbalanced, the performer must jump from one plate to the next keeping their speed up and ensuring they stay on top of their dowel rods.
Similarly, juggling is an act of moving quickly from ball to ball, catching and throwing, as the need of each ball becomes urgent to stay in the pattern. Dancing too is an apt analogy for volunteer management. Timing, dynamic movement, and a need to attend to a thousand tiny details, are the distinguishing features of dancing and the job of volunteer management.
This analogy further illustrates a big part of my philosophy about how to work with volunteers. Just as every plate needs to be touched each volunteer needs their own appropriate amount of contact. And while I am not suggesting physical contact, it is true that every volunteer in a program needs some amount of figurative contact. Each plate needs its nudge to stay on track and remain part of the performance.
It’s not always easy. Ambiguity and on-the-spot decision making combined with demands on emotional intelligence are some of the more challenging aspects of working with volunteers. One doing the work of volunteer management needs to pay attention to immediate situations as well as medium and long term conditions, making adjustments to plans and goals as conditions change.
The astute volunteer manager also needs to keep an eye on themselves. It is all too easy to loose oneself in the needs of others, and suddenly you look up and notice it is 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon and you haven’t had lunch yet. It has happened to me and I have seen it happen to others who do this work. Any perceived benefits from sacrificing one’s own comfort in this way for the benefits of the group are easily lost in a variety of ways. Not the least of these losses is burning out but also the volunteers in your program learning “correct” behavior through the modeling by those who manage them. Remember, your actions, your reactions to situations, and the way you express priorities are all conveyed to a volunteer population who is constantly trying to be part of the culture of your group or institution. They will protect themselves from burnout as an acceptable part of your program’s culture if you do.
Thankfully there is a remedy to prevent burnout. To continue the metaphor of juggling, there is often a rhythm of periods of rest between the periods of activity. And in cases where there might not be a natural rhythm one can be built. I have lunch carved out of my schedule as an apparent meeting and, most importantly, I stick to it. I also find it personally effective to have a little distraction at the ready, like a newspaper or something similar, that I look at for a few moments between tasks. For me this acts like a sort of mental “palette cleanser” and prevents the fatigue that can occur when I stay focused on one thing or idea for too long.
Part of the plate spinning performance is to stack the plates neatly at the end, all whole and undamaged. This is done through deliberate acts. Plan to keep yourself sane, Volunteer Manager, and you can spin plates tomorrow too.
And how would you know if you weren’t keeping up with everything? Bluntly, the plates fall and shatter in a very dramatic and loud fashion. This can manifest as volunteers quitting your program in protest or in times of heightened stress because they feel they are not supported. And as they go others drop out as well, either because they support the first volunteer or because they too feel they have not been treated well or supported. Negative word of mouth advertising will spread through the community and it will become more difficult to recruit volunteers to your program. Volunteers will tell you what they need so an out-of-the-blue exodus of volunteers is rarely the case.
So keep your head, Volunteer Manager. You do a difficult job that can use up all your resources if you aren’t careful. If you remember to take care of yourself while taking care of each of the spinning plates you can all keep going well into the future.
All Willing Hands 